Hellmarine
by Chaos Nightbringer
Summary: Lieutenant Ricky Sterman and his elite, badtothebone unit, The Hellmarines corps, are dispatched on a guard action to defend an armory. Better Summary coming in on Chapter 2. First in the Hellmarine series.
1. Chapter 1

My Sorrow Hour

Disclaimer; I don't own Starcraft, or Blizzard. Or the concept of suicidal. Although that would be a nice thing to own…hmmm…everybody has to pay you to commit suicide…

Summary: This is based on the opening cinematic of Brood War, with a few variations.

Chapter I: Descent

"_If we weren't meant to kill, God would not have given us hands."_

Massive Behemoth-class Battlecruisers rained death down on the horde of Zerg organisms, incinerating whole nest-groups of zerglings. Not even a Ultralisk could stand against the death that was raining. On the ground, squads of fifteen-foot Goliath combat walkers stalked the killing fields, blasting away with autocannons, cutting down ever advancing hordes.

Ricky Sterman switched off the view. It wasn't his idea of fun, watching monsters get cut down. He wanted to do it himself.

In the dropship's hold, a pair of the Goliath walkers were awaiting the opportunity to set down their feet and move. Ricky knew one was occupied by one of his long time friends, Samual Joseph Perry, a man who was heavy on the trigger but with poor eyesight. His Goliath was equipped with much larger ammo bins and bigger missile racks, and had a hydralisk face on its front.

'Ten to drop, rock and roll, marines!' the pilot radioed from the front. Mission info was suddenly projected onto his HUD. They were going to defend a secondary armory near the end of the main front. It was lined with trenches, with a pair of bunkers backed by a missile turret. There was even a thick, solidly built building that looked like a short, squat bridge with pressure doors on both sides. An armory. Massive trenches were being dug by a dozen SCV construction suits, modified with large hoe-like hands. The dropships lurched, dropping both Goliath Walkers onto their piston powered feet. They moved to secure the bunkers, while the other dropships, one of them dropping the massive Arclite Siege Tank, its twin barreled cannon rotating slowly to scan the area, intending to blow anything apart with its shells.

Ricky stomped out of the dropship, his C-14 in his hands. His was a belt-fed commander issue, as squad leader, he couldn't afford to reload in the heat of combat. He'd need that hand to crush skulls. Maybe his men's skulls, if they were found wanting. Ricky was juiced up on stim packs, so the battlefield made him feel all the more active and excited. And bloodthirsty. But he'd been sent to a crappy rear flank mission. It was bullshit in purest form. He needed to kill something.

'Ricky, calm the fuck down. I'm getting' nervous lookin' at you, and I'm in a Goliath!' Sam radioed.

'Incoming!' cried a voice. A pair of crab-like forms were flying in fairly quickly. The dropships weren't even airborne yet. The squad of firebats had just departed from the dropship still on the ground.

"Bring 'em down!" Sam turned his Goliath's torso and opened up with his autocannons. The barrage fell well short of the Guardians. Bill Baker, the other Hellmarine Goliath pilot fired a pair of his surface-to-air missiles. The explosives streaked out. Too late. The guardians each fired a pair of toxic bio-warheads, that streaked out at the dropships. The grounded dropships took the 'heads in the back, and the toxins splashed across the metal, eating through. The pilots soon ran out the back hatch, just before the dropship exploded, enveloping the firebats. They ran out unscathed, and Ricky let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

"Mike! How are the 'Bats?"

'Burnin' like the pits of hell.' The Firebat sergeant replied, hefty up his massive fusion-spitters. Ordinarily, a Firebat was equipped with 2 Sedition Plasma-based Flamethrowers, and CMC-660 Heavy Combat armor, Michael Morris was too large to be encased within that small armor. Instead he wore CMC-950 Juggernaut Assault armor, large enough to be considered a tactical Goliath, with a fusion-spitter on each arm. Instead of the dangerous business of using plasma, the SW-22 Fusion-based Flamer contained a miniature nuclear fusion reactor, and sucked air into the chamber and released it, not only burned a target, but irradiated it. What made the weapons even nastier was the hot air effectively doubled the weapon's range, but wasn't seen by the human eye. Every Firebat in the Hellmarines corps was equipped with at least one. Ricky himself had customized his rifle by adding an underslung fusion-spitter, giving him a short-range weapon.

'Ground push!' Sam added. He settled his walker into a firing position and began to open up with his autocannons.

"Hellmarines, let's show 'em the real monsters!" Ricky called, running to the trenches.

'Hell rides high tonight!' the marines chorused, following closely. As one, the first squad of the Hellmarines dropped into the pits, SCV pilots quickly abandoning the machines and running into the bunkers, where they could fire on the Zerg with the fixed machine guns in the Bunker's slots. The Missile Turret locked onto the wave of zerglings coming towards them, and projected markers onto Ricky's HUD, marking each Zergling with a red circle around it. He pulled down on the trigger.

The C-14 and 16 model Gauss Rifles spat out metal spikes wide enough to gouge out the eyes of a draft horse of old Earth, and long enough to stab through a man's head and stick out the other side at supersonic speeds automatically at 600 rounds per minute. They were made from stainless steel, and were strong enough to retain their shape, ready to re-case and reload on the field.

Ricky's Gauss Rifle began to roar out impaler rounds, and he swung his rifle left and right, making sure he hit something. Zerglings tripped and fell and exploded under the rain of fire.

A zergling lunged through the line of its falling brethren, oblivious to the Impalers ripping into its side. It lunged straight at Ricky. A new rifle cracked one, twice, three times, and three holes exploded open between the zergling's eyes. Ricky turned right, firing his rifle off to his left, his HUD opening a window for the gun's sight.

A lithe woman suddenly faded into view, wearing a hostile environment suit that fit to her form little too snuggly. Ricky brought up a mental image of himself in his CMC-400 armor and instantly felt…inadequate. She was a scalpel to his Hammer.

"My thanks, ma'am." Ricky said, striking a small salute.

"Ah…a marine with manners." She said playfully, and Ricky almost dropped his rifle. That voice awoke something in his loins, more so than her body in that armor. The ghost's hand went to her thigh, then slowly slid all the way up her form to her breast and squeezed it firmly. Ricky's eyes had followed that hand all the way, his mouth open, a small drop of drool going down his chin from the corner of his mouth. He looked up into her helmet's sensors.

'Oh, damn. Michael! Get Ricky his towel!' Sam cried over the radio. The ghost gave a giggle from under her helmet and went to remove it. Out came a head full of straight blond hair that reminded Ricky of a lion's mane. She wasn't beautiful, striking, but not beautiful. But then, neither was _She._ But Ricky shook away that thought. Kikyo was dead, had died a long time ago, nearly seven years.

'Hey. The Zerg are falling back.' Sam reported. 'Why don't you check out that armory.' He had known Ricky since they were eight, and by now could read each other like a book subconsciously. Ricky looked and realized that the Zerg had indeed fell back, or had all been shot down, and now Michael's firebats were hosing the area down with their Fusion-spitters. The Ghost had pinched her nose shut, and Ricky understood why. Burning zerg carapace smelled like burning toenails.

"This way?" he offered, gesturing to the Armory. The ghost had the traces of a smile on her lips, and turned to building, turning her hips in a way that stole Ricky's breath from his chest. Ricky breathed deeply through his armor's filters and then followed, trying to keep his eyes away from her butt.

"I already know what you want." The Ghost said, looking over her shoulder. "Why not just look?"

"Professionalism, ma'am." Ricky replied, while he steeled himself against her charms. But Jesus, did she remind him of Kikyo.

"Like that drool still on your lip?" she asked coyly. Ricky reached with his massive armored fist and wiped it away as best he could with the suit's rubber 'fingerprints.'

"What drool, ma'am?" he replied. She looked forward again when they entered the armory. The door behind them closed on its own, although Ricky strongly suspected she did it so she could try to seduce him. She turned a hundred and eighty degrees, and Ricky got a good look at her face.

"Kikyo!" he cried. It was actually her! Why hadn't he recognized her outside? He dropped his rifle and grabbed her, pulling her close, and pressed his lips onto hers.

The Ghost screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't' own Starcraft.

Summary (full) Ricky Sterman is the leader of the Elite Hellmarines corps, which has been assigned to a simple guard mission, but a Ghost with a mission to nuke a Zerg cerebrate complicate matters…

Chapter 2: Dixie

"_Memory is the most valuable payment we can offer. Once it's gone, we are powerless and poor. Just ask the abyss left over."_

Ricky Sterman was thrown backwards by telekinesis, his power armor squealing as it struck the heavy door behind him. Ricky fell onto his back, wincing in pain as his ass hit heavy metal plates of his armor. He'd heal, though. Unless the knife at his throat moved a few hairs closer to his spine. He looked up into the female Ghosts face. Kikyo's face.

_Don't touch me! _The Kikyo-Ghost hissed in his mind. Then the Rifle pointed at the base of her skull gave a click as a bullet slid into the chamber. Kikyo froze, blinking. She pulled the knife back and then tossed it to the floor.

"I was watching you for the last fifteen seconds, bitch. You didn't think CMC-400 armor could be fitted with a cloak, eh? Every Hellmarine's armor is, even the firebats. The Goliaths are. It's why we're so effective." Sam growled behind his faceplate. It slid up to reveal his battered and scarred face. Sam had been nicknamed 'web-face' during his Marine days for his unusual amount of battle scars. He'd been hit the most and the hardest of all the Hellmarines, harder even than Michael, and got right back up to give some payback.

If there was one man Ricky didn't want to have a knife-fight with, it was Sam 'Painkiller' Perry.

"I was just fine, Painkiller." Ricky snarled, getting back onto his feet.

"Yeah, tell that to the thin red line on your neck." Sam spat. He examined the ghost, his eyes suddenly wide. "My god, she-"

"I know, she looks just like Kikyo."

"Who is this Kikyo?" the Ghost asked, placing a delicate hand on her hip. Sam's eyes widened even more, and he backed up a step or two.

"She was my wife," Ricky said simply. "Then she was taken in by the Ghost program and she died during training." She stared at him for a moment, blankly, then her eyes began to dart around, as if she was paralyzed and a King Cobra was going up her panties with its hood open. Then she grabbed her head, falling to her knees, and screamed. Ricky recognized neural resocialization when he saw it, even though the Hellmarines were all free of the mind blocks, whether like that forever or they'd broken them. Sam and Michael were the latter, the reason for Sam's lack of pain, as he'd unconsciously destroyed his pain centers during the resocialization break.

Ricky fell to his knees and gripped the ghost's chin, forcing her to look at him. Sam dropped his gauss rifle to his leg holster and pulled out a medkit and simple but sturdy black backpack.

"She needs Hellmaker." Ricky called. Besides being his nickname, Hellmaker was a special chemical with nanobots in it to destroy neural resoc chemicals that held it together. But it had the unfortunate side effect of waking up a person's actual memories in a manner befitting a psychotic episode. Sam reached in the back and pulled out a hypo with a full tube of the purple fluid.

"Are you sure? She's got the psisonic power of a cerebrate. She could rip us apart with a simple blink of an eye." Sam said, prepping the hypo.

"Do it!" Ricky shouted.

"I need to get to her heart." Sam said. Together they ripped open the Hostile environment suit and a sports bra underneath with relative ease. Sam placed the hypo's spray head against her upper chest, and pressed the button. The hypo hissed and the tube emptied rapidly.

The ghost gave another scream, accompanied by a blast of telekinesis that sent both of them flying into walls, just as the sound of heavy gunfire began to sound.

'Jesus! They're swarming! Like a bunch of fuckin' hornets! Yo! Moose! Burn 'em dead!' came Bill's voice over the radio.

'As ordered.' Michael replied, and Ricky could imagine Michael spraying the zerg with both fusion-spitters literally roaring. Out of the corner of Ricky's eye, Sam got up and heft up his Impaler.

"I know what's making them swarm." He growled, and his trigger twitched.

"Hi, Sam." The Ghost said. "I'm…uh…I'm awake. I'm back." Dixie Johnson, AKA Kikyo, looked up from her chest. "Thanks for the Hellmaker."

"Thanks for the blast that threw me on my ass. I need to get to my Goliath." He lowered the rifle and walked out of the armory. He stopped just outside the door.

"Don't take too long." He walked further. 'Alright! Painkiller is taking squad command for squad one! You ladies get cloaked and dig around the horde. Suppressing fire. I'll cover you with my Goliath.' He shouted over the command channel.

Ricky extracted himself from the hole he'd made in the wall and picked up his rifle. "Can you do something about your…?"

Dixie closed her eyes and concentrated. "That should do it." She began stuffing herself back into her hostile environment suit.

"I thought you were dead." He muttered.

"I kinda was. Painkiller?"

"I can't make him wince, if that tells you something. Hell, Michael's broken half of his bones, and he still gets right back up to kick Michael's ass. You saw his face? Those all healed naturally. He didn't even put a dressing on them. Just some antibiotics."

Dixie snorted. "Where'd I drop my rifle?" she asked, standing. Ricky kicked it over. She picked up the rifle and popped a rocket into the underslung launcher. She started out the door.

Ricky grabbed her arm. "I missed you." He whispered.

Dixie smiled grimly. "I know." Ricky let her go, and she proceeded through the door.

"Yeah, I guess Hellmaker is different now." He muttered to himself. He took his rifle in both hands and followed, ducking down into the trenches.

Spines flew above his head, grazing armor, scratching off paint in places. Ricky ducked closer to the ground and pushed along, firing off bursts with his rifle. The siege Tank was firing its thunderous Shock cannon, while Bill was unloading his Goliath's ammo bins behind the cover of the Firebats. A Hydralisk jumped, its scything arms open, straight at the walker. Bill fired a single missile, which lanced out and blew the Hydralisk into just a quarter of one, spraying sickening green ichor and orange gore all over the firebats. Michael fingered a bit of the stuff off of his armor and licked it away, then grinned.

"Needs some of mom's home cookin'! Heat 'em up and cook 'em down!" As one the whole squad fired, sending a wall of fire at the brood.

"Airburst Special!" Sam cried. Moose hefted a pair of plasma tanks and tossed them both into the sky. Sam locked on and fired on both. They exploded in the height of their fall and bombarded down on the zerg. Sam moved his Goliath over beside Bill's, both cutting down the xenomorphs with the true-blue power of Goliath Autoguns. Bill's clicked, and he pulled down both levers, loading another box into the bin, and pulled back the massive action on the cannons from inside his cockpit, a feat impossible without the powered armor he was wearing in the walker.

Squad one began firing from their entrenched position, firing perpendicular to squads two and three, making a scything crossfire. Michael lit up a contraband cigar with his fusion-spitter's red-hot nozzle.

"That's how we do it in Dixie." He grunted, cigar glowing between his teeth. Their was an almost terrifying silence after the last zergling fell. Then a massive screaming roar broke the silence, like a massive bull seeing red.

Ricky perked up, his eyes wide.

"Ultralisk."

& & &

Yes, I know, I'm evil.

By the way, here's the backstory for the rifles the Hellmarines carry.

Every Hellmarine carries a customized C-16 Elite Gauss "Impaler" Rifle that fire Rounds 50 percent larger than the standard 'spikes'. After the small confrontations entering the Korpulu sector, the Hellmarines, who had earned 200 more kills than other divisions per marine, were granted rights to customize their weaponry, and upgraded Michael Morris to a CMC-950 suit, and traded in the firebats' plasma-based flamethrowers to fusion-spitters. But instead of simply trading in their Rifles, they upgraded them with specialist C-16 rifles, (with some modifications inspired by the C-10 canister rifle,) and increased caliber and accuracy while decreasing firing rate and power requirements, rendering the C-16 Elite and its cousin, the Commander-issue C-16 FCI, a perfect infantry weapon. Their CMC-400 armor was also secretly upgraded with cloaking devices taken from destroyed Wraiths.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own Starcraft.

Chapter 3: Ultralisk

Warning: Don't try this at home, kids, Ricky Sterman is a trained professional and he is wearing lots and lots of protection, especially around the one-eyed sergeant. Of course, he himself was a sergeant at one time, and many people mistake him for having one eye.

"Ultralisk." Ricky muttered. He looked to Dixie, who met his gaze. They looked just as the massive elephantine creature ambled out of the fog. Its scythe-limbs began swinging wildly back and forth.

"FIRE!! Fire like it insulted your mom!" Ricky shouted, taking careful aim, hoping he could hit it in the weak spot. Gauss rifles began spitting out rounds on full auto, sending dotted lines of fire at the abomination. The rounds just bounced off of its heavy interlocked plates. It just kept on trampling foreward.

Ten meters…

Ricky grabbed his rifle's barrel, or rather the weapon attached to it…

Five meters…

Ricky began letting loose with his fusion-spitter, hoping it wouldn't reach his men before it fell. Sam's bins were empty, and he reloaded. Bill just finished reloading and began chattering off autocannon rounds.

Three meters…

The Hellmarines in the front cried out and turned back to run to the bunkers. The siege tank pounded at it with its shock cannon…

One meter…

The Ultralisk roared in what seemed like pleasure as its heavy scything limbs cut through armor. No one was dead yet, but the monster only needed to get a good hit. Ricky blasted the thing with his fusion-spitter and his regular rifle's fire, sending hot spikes into the large xenomorph.

It suddenly kicked out, sending Ricky into the air. He twisted, trying to find the sky, but it was just as dark as the ground, and there was no moon. He landed on his face, and a big red light flashed in his face.

'_Hey, you in the armor, you fell, moron.'_ Ricky gritted his teeth and put and hand underneath him and rolled/twisted to his feet, and examined his rifle. It had broken in half.

Dammit. He'd liked that rifle. He'd need to get a new one or repair it. He looked around, caught sight of the Ultralisk, and started charging. The beast caught sight of him and roared, then began stomping towards him. Ricky didn't even slow, even though he knew that those scythes it thought were arms would probably go right through both him and his armor. He flexed his massive power fists, getting used to their strength.

'Let's see Painkiller top this.' He thought grimly, and jumped onto the Ultralisk's face. He snapped his hand out and caught the scythe arm closest at its base and squeezed. He met bone, then began squeezing harder. Bone cracked, just a small crack, but enough to make the Ultralisk roar in pain.

"Scream, you ugly sonuvabitch! Scream like you mean it!!" He roared back, used his thumb to break the bone. The whole scythe arm was brutally cut, and fell off. Ricky crawled so he could reach into the socket left over and punched his fist in. he began ripping out chunks of the creature, feeling for a heart, and brain anything. Ricky began pulling out intestines when he realized he needed a bigger hole. He gripped both edges of the wound and began pulling apart. The armor made a tearing sound, somewhere between ripping denim and ribs being separated, when it opened wider. Ricky pulled it apart, revealing a massive hole big enough to go into. So he did.

& & &

Sam watched as Ricky went inside the thing, then his eyes widened as the Ultralisk tripped and fell, and Ricky burst out from inside the alien like a chestburster from _Aliens_. In his hand was an organic matter that didn't seem entirely solid, and was leaking pink fluid.

Ricky held it up to examine.

"Well whattya know, these uglies do have brains. See ya, pretty." He said, then tossed the brain over his shoulder. Sam sighed and began shaking his head.

'Seems to me Hellmaker's a little wild in the head.' Bill muttered over the radio.

'Oh, aye, but a wee bit crazy be alrighty in such a situation, aye?' Sam mocked.

'Aye.' Moose said.

'In fact, if we had a crazy award, he'd be the man to get it. All in favor say aye.' Almost every Hellmarine in the corps that could raise an arm did.

'Aye.' Ricky approached Dixie, covered in the Ultralisk's multi-colored guts.

"I think we've missed some 4th of July-s." He held up a detonator and thumbed it. The Ultralisk exploded from the inside out, spraying the whole Hellmarine corps in ichor. They cheered, raising rifles.

"Celebratory war paint." Ricky said. Dixie smiled, shaking her head.

"You haven't changed much, have you?"

"Never."

Dixie lowered her head. "I'm here for a reason. They detected a Cerebrate near here, so I was sent in to paint it for a nuclear strike."

"What?" Ricky sat there, staring.

"I have just 2 hours before they pull out."

"Jesus." He switched on his radio. "Alright, Hellmarines, we've got a new objective. Load up and move out. Bill, keep squad 2 here with you, the rest of you are coming with me."

'You'll need a Goliath, Rick.' Sam warned.

"No, you stay here. Kikyo is coming with me."

Ricky walked to the armory. He needed another rifle.

& & &

So that's chapter 3. Next we're gonna start the main storyline.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Slip In

(For you sickos out there, the title means slipping into enemy territory, retards. But you can look forward to some lemon later on.)

Ricky Sterman hefted up his new over-and-under, belt-fed Gauss Rifle, designed for his specialty, putting a hell of a lot of bullets into his target. Cloaked, he slipped past a pair of zerglings fighting over a sac of vespene gas, and Ricky was repulsed.

The larger of the two, maybe one of the pack leader Devouring Ones the briefing had spoken of. If a Devouring was here, a Hunter Killer or two would be as well. Ricky shivered, unconsciously. Genetically superior Hydralisks, Hunter Killers could sniff out almost anything, including a cloaked suit of CMC-400 armor. Or the sweating mother fucker inside it. Ricky didn't intend to find out, those spines could and would puncture right through his armor, and Hunter Killers were renowned for their accuracy as much as their aggressiveness.

His HUD lit up his teammates so he wouldn't bump into them and blow the op. Funny, why was Sam reading on his scopes? He wasn't even in the Suit's range. Must be a malfunction. Ricky flicked his armor in the head and continued on. A fried Zerg limb snapped under his boot, and the Devouring Zergling looked up, its opponent forgotten. Ricky quickly caught the little monster in his sight and blew its brains out. The Other zergling just went to the sac of vespene, then devoured the whole thing in one gulp, over-extending its jaws like a snake.

'Nasty little buggers.' Ricky thought, quoting Oliver Wood from the Harry Potter DVD he'd owned when he was a kid. Ricky banished that thought from his brain and then continued moving. The air coming into his suit was getting increasingly putrid, and Ricky was tempted to bash the intakes to clear them out. But such an action would reveal their position.

"Oh son of a bitch!" a Hellmarine called. Suddenly, eight Hydralisks burst up from the ground and started firing.

"Shit!" Ricky decloaked and began firing. His suit's internal lighting went up as his cloak went down, and the recoil pounded into his armor. A hydralisk tripped over his rounds and was cut in half viscously.

A Goliath suddenly appeared and began to cut the monsters down with Autocannon fire. A Hellmarine gave a scream as he was cut apart by three Hydralisks, but Ricky quickly put a round into the man's chest and moved into the cut down the 'lisks. One Hydralisk, a massive serpent of muscle and bone turned and began to slither away rapidly, sacrificing its attack to move rapidly. Ricky cursed and chased after it. He started gaining on it, but it was still too fast, and it new the terrain. It was going through the rocks, as opposed to Ricky's going around, cussing like a sailor as he did.

"Hey, snakey," Sam Perry called, standing in front of the serpent. It raised into a fighting position, hissing like a cobra. "Eat slugs." He emptied his entire clip into the creature.

& & &

Michael checked the batteries on his suit. He only had another few hours before his CMC-950 armor would need a recharge. Bill approached him in his 400 hundred suit, taking swigs from a flask he carried.

"Seen some things, but these damn aliens make a wire-wolf look like a pansy." Bill muttered, sitting down beside the Firebat.

"Don't insult the wolf." Michael muttered. "Fenris is a frozen hell full of them, and they can think. If you've ever tired hunting one, you'll know it's not a hunt, it's a championship match, and the loser loses all."

"How many have you killed? Personally?"

"Two." Michael said simply, taking a swig from his canteen.

"Two? What about Painkiller and Hellmaker?" Bill asked, looking to the giant man.

"Not sure about Sam, but I'm pretty sure he's killed at least ten. He was tough even before he was Painkiller. But Ricky, there's a wolf in human form. He thinks like them all the time. Wolves only think about one thing, killing, and that's it. How to do it, and how to get to a position to do it. Quickly, cleanly. They can't digest something they didn't kill. They just wind up puking it up. Ricky thinks about who he has to kill to eat again. It's a need to kill. He can go just fine without, but he needs it to keep on living.

"I've only seen one person outhunt Hellmaker, and that's Sam, and it was practically a fluke. Ricky's killed twenty-two wolves with his bare-hands. He killed a Fenrisian Kraken once, but he used a spear. But, he did it."

Michael took another swig and popped the top back on and stood. "I hope they comeback. Ricky gave me this purpose, and it dies if he does."

"You miss your homeworld?" Bill called.

Michael turned. "Fenris? Hell no. It's a frozen hell of a planet. If you live past six, congrats, man, you just became an adult. I'm twenty-three, so I'm old, by my standards. Sam is actually an Elder back there, and Ricky? Ricky's a demon."

& & &

"I told you to stay with the others, but you not only disobeyed me, you brought the Goliath!" Ricky shouted. His trigger finger was twitching.

"Goliath? I didn't bring my Goliath. I was following you in my armor. I couldn't get a Goliath through this." Ricky turned back to his squad and started running. He jumped over a rock wall when he caught sight of them. Four squads of Men, ten marines and two firebats per squad.

'Who's the leader?' a Sergeant asked. Ricky jumped down into the pit.

"Me. Lieutenant Ricky Sterman, of the Hellmarines."

'Sergeant Justin Bukawski, first Lunar Battalion. Well, what's left of it. We've got medics.' Ricky looked around and did noticed a pair of medics.

'Great.' Sam called. The gathering looked up. 'Means you can fix this.' He showed off his left leg, which was punctured with a Hyrdalisk's severed scythe-claw. Ricky hissed.

"Jesus, man, don't you feel _anything_?" Ricky asked, hoping he'd answer yes.

'No. Got a little tightening of the groin because I'm picturing female nurses for some reason, but other than that, not much.'

"You mean you can actually feel the scythe?"

"Oh, yeah. It doesn't hurt, it just feels kinda weird. Think it might of hit the bone a little on the right side, but I'm fine."

"Note to self, get you a beer."

"I'll be happy to remind you."

'Um, the medics are all male.'

"Ah, crap." Sam cursed.

"Got any corporals?" Ricky asked.

'Yes sir. Corporal Richard Bedwell, (no, seriously,) and Matt Weaver. We, uh, we just call him Pieman.' Justin replied.

"Pieman?"

'He's weird that way, sir.'

Ricky sighed. "Where's the Ghost?"

'No idea, sir.' Came a Hellmarine's reply. Ricky met Sam's gaze.

"Dixie!" no reply.

'Ricky!' she screamed. 'They have me!'

& & &

"What about this Dixie character?" Bill asked.

"If she gets caught by something with a brain smaller than a siege tank, lord help us." Michael muttered.

& & &

Ooh, the complications deepen. How interesting. Alright, I'll admit, I'm starting to write crap. It feels like crap, smells like crap, and looks like crap. Please tell me it's not crap?


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Captured

The marines stalked forward as one, gauss rifles raised to cut down anything. There was no sign of the mystery Goliath, but Ricky had a feeling he'd see more of it. When examining the encounter from his memory, a particularly foul odor had filled the air, like pestilence. But he filed that piece of trivia away, concentrating on getting back his wife.

Zerglings were fleeing from them, trying to cover a particularly large Defiler, who was wrapping Dixie in a nasty web. Ricky raised his rifle, and fired a burst. The unclean one tripped and fell. Dixie gave a short scream as she fell into a group of hungry zerglings.

Ricky raised his rifle and began to cut loose on full auto. Suddenly, a pair of marines suddenly jumped out of the crowd, snarling and hissing. Ricky's eyes went wide, and he fired. The infested marine jumped upward, then burst into a Cloud of noxious gas and poisonous fumes. Ricky flipped his visor shut and engaged his air filters.

"Visors down! Visors down!" Ricky cried, and Bukawski was saying the same.

Sam pounded his armored chest. 'Lungs of steel.' He said.

"More like filters of heaven." Ricky spat.

'That too.' Ricky set his rifle down and jumped into the crowd of zerglings, swinging both fists around, scything through the small brood. He reached Dixie and began pulling back the sticky web. Dixie's cheeks were streaked with dry tears, cutting through the grime. Her eyes were still watering, and she was jerking slightly. Ricky hugged her close, letting out a breath he had been holding.

Fenris taught men to become wolves, and life on Fenris taught wolves how to be mates. Ricky prayed silently to Leman Russ, thanking him she was safe.

"I c-can feel h-him." She whimpered. Ricky's eyes opened. The cerebrate. He looked up, searching the horizon. Yes, there were the telltale spires of hive clusters. A great many hive clusters.

"Sam, stay here, I'm going to paint the target real quick."

'Gotcha.' Sam replied. Ricky set down his mate and engaged his cloaking device, turning off the lights inside his suit. He grabbed up Dixie's C-10, loaded a rocket into the underslung launcher, and proceeded up the hill. He caught sight of the mass hives, watching the little scorpion-attendants, drones, harvest the crystalline minerals. Ricky shook away the thoughts that came up. They made his stomach quelch, if that was a word, like hurling, but couldn't find enough sickness to do so, leaving a horrible feeling down in his gut.

He turned on the target painter and aimed the rifle at the center of the cluster, where a massive biological cannon was writhing. The rifle gave a steady hum like a dial-up, then beeped affirmatively. The Zerg organisms around the hive suddenly were roaring an hissing, stretching to their tallest, and started up the hill for Ricky's position. He looked, up, and discovered a massive lobster-like overlord.

"Dammit!" Ricky cried. He shut down the Cloak and diverted all the power to the legs. He turned and ran, shouting, "fall back to insertion point! Fall back! Get the hell out of here! Nuke inbound! Justin, get your Luna-born fat ass moving! Follow the Hellmarines!" He snatched up Dixie and ran like the wind. The Marines ran away at nearly thirty miles an hour. A Battlecruiser above the battlefield began to turn towards the hive cluster, raining down a covering wave of lasers and gauss cannons.

Ricky's eyes lit up a little, as a single missile launched from the 'Cruiser's mid-section.

& & &

(4 hours after Tactical Nuclear Strike on Tiamat Brood.)

Daggoth was enraged. His brood, the great and powerful Tiamat, had been crippled by these humans. His new body, although just as weak as the last, was much younger, and stronger. Daggoth immediately began to rebuild his main hive clusters. New Hunter Killers, his personal Hydralisk honor-guards, were rounding up the uncontrollable zerg until he could order the birth of new Overlords.

He'd connected with a human's mind, however, and had managed to discern certain facts and memories. Fenrisian Wolves, they were mostly useless to his purposes, but the Kraken, now that had potential. He'd already called for the Leviathans to carry him from this planet in search of such a creature.

But the humans, these Hellmarines. Interesting, if barbaric. Daggoth decided he'd watch these ones. The Overmind was absent, so Daggoth was leading now. But he'd wait. Wait and watch.

& & &

The dropships lowered down onto their landing struts. Ricky was somewhat embarrassed by the state of his armor, it was stained orange and green. Hardly parade muster. It'd need a thorough scrubbing to get it back to the gunmetal black. Admiral Dugalle, however, didn't seem patient enough.

He stepped off of the dropship, fitted into a large and foppishly decorated suit of CMC-400 Power Armor. He approached the Hellmarines and the remnants of the Lunar Regiment, all at attention.

Sam and Bill were standing proud n' tall in their Goliath walkers. Sam had paid most from that nuke. Both his eyes were gone, burned out, and replaced with augmetic eyes. He'd never see quite the same, actually better. He'd displayed an alarmingly good aim in the past few hours. Ricky was pretty sure Sam could face down a Hydralisk with a nailgun now.

"Lieutenant Sterman. Agent Johnson." Dugalle nodded to both.

"Sir." They chorused.

"I'm extremely happy about this victory here. But we're leaving this theater. Despite the destruction of a Cerebrate, we need to claim a supply of mineral and vespene. We've targeted Braxis, that'll be the next world. But I'm not ungrateful. In fact, I've ordered Agent Johnson to be the permanent Ghost agent of the Hellmarines." He uttered in a flat tone.

"I'd ask a favor, sir."

"I'll try to grant it."

"Sir, well, two. Sir. First, the First Lunar Regiment gets compounded with us. They seem like a good lot, once they've been toughened up like a true warrior of Fenris. Second, Agent Johnson was also my wife. If we could get a cabin, we would appreciate it."

"Done and done." Dugalle answered. "Now, get this beast," he indicated the armory "off the ground, and load up."

"Sir." Ricky saluted.

"Hellmarines! Load into these fine vehicles. We got some nice comfy steel-spring cots waitin' for ya! First man on gets a night in the cabin!" The Hellmarines, every stinking one, ran at the dropships. Ricky turned back to the dropships.

"So, Ricky." Michael said. "It's a six-week haul to Braxis. We gonna have a reception?"

Ricky and Dixie looked at each other.

"Yep. I've got a few kegs of Fenrisian Ale on the _Jaeger_."

& & &

(Battlecruiser _Jaeger_, en route to Braxis.)

Ricky dropped into the bed in the new cabin, with a very large buzz and a few renewed vows. Dixie jumped on beside him, grinning.

"You know we got six weeks, right?" Ricky said, pulling the rubber band out of his small ponytail.

"Yep. And I intend to use them." Dixie said, unbuttoning her uniform.

& & &

Michael and Sam were sitting at the small bar in the galley. Both were holding mugs of Fenrisian Ale and Sam had a confused look enhanced by his augmetics.

"That makes no sense." Sam complained.

"What?" Michael asked, draining his mug.

"We've both got better builds than him, but he's the one who's married."

"Were you ever married?"

"Once."

"What happened?"

"Joined these fine Warriors of Fenris." Sam finished, then drained his mug. "Well, guess we're the only Hellmarines in here, ya wanna go start a brawl? Those boys from Prospero look a little un-bruised."

"I put ten on the Numb one."

"I'm the numb one." Sam growled, giving Michael a glare.

"Exactly." Sam raised a silent eyebrow, then looked bag to his mug.

"Michael?"

"Yeah?"

"These next few years are gonna get very interesting."

Michael chuckled. "Coulda told you that."

& & &

That's the end. Next is 'Frost War.' Where the Hellmarines go to battle with the Protoss as well as the Zerg. And I'm Introducing another villain, Commander Locke. (Not based off of the Matrix's Commander Locke, but he's similiar.)


End file.
